Charlotte heat gets to Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch said he felt a heat stroke coming on at Charlotte Motor Speedway and that's what led him to ask for medical assistance after the race.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver completed all 337 laps in the Bank of America 500 before parking his Toyota on pit road and needing to lay in the grass. After trying to cool his body down with ice bags, Busch was transported to the care center where he received oxygen to bring his carbon monoxide levels down – which likely spiked as fumes got into the car after hitting the wall on Lap 137 – and additional care in bringing his body temperature down.

"Overall, that was just the hottest I've been in the car," Busch said after being released. "I didn't feel sick from the CO or anything like that, I just felt heat stroke and I've had that before living out in Vegas. You have that a few times when you're playing outside in the summer as kid.

"So, I knew what it was, I knew what it felt like. But the only way to do it is just get out and get cooled down."

Sunday was a long day for Busch, who entered the weekend looking for three straight victories. After leading 22 laps early, hitting the Turn 3 wall while running second was the end of Busch's chances to contend for a decent finish. While the team worked hard to repair the car, Busch eventually fell two laps down.

"I got in the slick stuff. When I entered Turn 3, I was following [Kevin] Harvick and I was trying to work it up a little bit, a little bit and the last three laps before that everything was fine and I was just inching it up, inching it up and apparently an inch a lap is too much," Busch said.

"I ended up getting too high and just got crossed up instantly. As soon as I turned off in the corner it was sideways."

The compound, PJ1, felt fine to Busch in the spring race. However, he said he didn't know what had been done differently this weekend but expressed that it wasn't done right. The middle groove seemed to work fine, but going any higher was treacherous.

Sunday, Busch ultimately hit the wall twice in addition to going for a spin before the day was over. He finished 29th.

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"It stinks to give up points. We came in here and thought we had a shot to run in the top 10 and we did. I threw it away," Busch said. "We're still above the cut line but we don't have that cushion that we'd like to have. You could go into Talladega and crash out early and be back in the pack and not finish well and be coming from behind in Kansas.

"That's what's you try not to have happen, but anything can happen in racing. So, we have to go out there and race hard, do a good job at Talladega to get through there with still a little bit of cushion then we can go race and be fine in Kansas."

Talladega Superspeedway is the second race in the Round of 12. A previous winner at the unpredictable 2.66-mile facility, Busch has a 12-point advantage on the first driver sitting out of a transfer spot.

"I hated that. Really, something like that you can't account for," team owner Joe Gibbs said of Busch's day. "Same thing happened to him in practice, it just took off on him in practice. I haven't talked to him about this [one].

"It's a frustrating deal for us. Its pressure packed; you got a three-race playoff. Thank goodness, we carried some points in but it'll be tough now. It'll be tough. We'll have to be on the ball with our three cars, for sure."